City officials could be reimbursed for legal fees in FBI probe

If anyone at City Hall is ever indicted in the FBI's investigation into local redevelopment deals, local taxpayers could wind up covering their legal fees.

The City Commission in 2012 approved a policy allowing commissioners and staff to be reimbursed for attorney's fees and costs if they are charged with a crime. Under the policy, however, city officials would have to prevail in court.

The policy was approved in the wake of the FBI's last investigation into the city, which focused on former Mayor John Marks' involvement in a federally funded broadband Internet project and an Atlanta nonprofit. No criminal charges were filed in that probe.

It’s unclear at this stage if any city official is a target of the FBI’s current investigation. It’s also not entirely clear whether any city commissioner has hired an attorney.

Three city commissioners, Nancy Miller, Curtis Richardson and Gil Ziffer, told the Tallahassee Democrat in absolute terms that they have not hired lawyers to represent them in the FBI investigation.

“I have not hired nor have I spoken with an attorney,” Ziffer said in a text.

An aide to Mayor Andrew Gillum and a spokesman for his gubernatorial campaign gave qualified responses when asked the same question. Gillum himself has said he was interviewed by the FBI without an attorney present, is assisting federal authorities and is not a focus of the investigation.

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Mayor Andrew Gillum speaks during a city commission meeting at City Hall on Wednesday.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

“It’s my understanding that he has not hired a lawyer,” said Jamie Van Pelt, the mayor’s aide. Van Pelt did not respond to a question asking whether he’d asked the mayor directly whether he’d hired an attorney.

Gillum’s campaign spokesman, Geoff Burgan, gave a similar response. Gillum himself did not respond.

“To my knowledge, the mayor has not hired an attorney,” Burgan said.

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City Commissioner Scott Maddox listens to comments from the public during a July meeting of the Community Redevelopment Agency at City Hall.(Photo: Hali Tauxe/Democrat)

City Commissioner Scott Maddox did not respond to a text asking about whether he’s hired an attorney. Maddox has previously said he will not be discussing the FBI investigation on the advice of the city attorney.

A federal grand jury working with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tallahassee is conducting an investigation involving City Hall, the Community Redevelopment Agency, eight local business people and more than a dozen of their companies.

The probe came to light in mid-June, about a week after the FBI issued subpoenas demanding records from the city and CRA involving the named individuals and their firms, including bids, applications proposals, payments and emails. Among those named were Paige Carter-Smith, a close friend of Maddox, and Adam Corey, an owner of the city-backed Edison restaurant and a former treasurer for Gillum’s mayoral campaign.

Under the policy, any request to pay legal bills would go before city commissioners, who could opt to pay all, none or some portion of the tab.

Jim English, the city attorney at the time, told commissioners the policy was built on the “strong presumption” that the city would not reimburse for legal fees stemming from criminal matters. The policy itself says as much — that any city official or employee is “exclusively responsible” for all attorneys fees incurred in their defense.

But the policy says the city “may” reimburse for legal fees when city officials prevail in legal cases that “arise out of and in connection with the scope of their city employment, while acting in their official capacity and serving a public purpose.”

“And this would be a very rare case I could never imagine frankly happening,” English said during the 2012 meeting. “But it does provide for that event.”

The policy says only "reasonable" fees may be paid; it defines reasonable fees as those based on the customary per-hour lawyer rate in Tallahassee for similar work.

The policy and a similar one allowing reimbursement in ethics cases were approved after the FBI issued a subpoena in April 2011 demanding city records involving the nonprofit Alliance for Digital Equality. Marks voted to approve a $1.2 million federal grant involving the city and ADE while he was a paid member of the nonprofit’s board.

While no criminal charges resulted from the ADE matter, the Florida Commission on Ethics charged Marks in June 2012. However, an administrative law judge who heard the ethics case exonerated him, and the Ethics Commission ultimately dropped the charges.

Marks, who was represented in the ethics case by noted trial attorney Barry Richard, later asked city commissioners to reimburse him for his legal bills. Commissioners voted in 2013 to do so, paying out $55,275.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter.